June 20, 2010 (KHARTOUM) — The Lebanese government moved quickly today to defuse anger caused by media reports that security forces in Beirut ruthlessly raided a cancer fundraising event hosted by Sudanese citizens.

A member of the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (AFP)

Lebanese newspapers this week quoted some of those who attended as accusing the police of using brutality to disperse the gathering at a ballroom in Al-Awaze’y area South of Beirut, shouting racial slurs against them.

The eyewitnesses said that minutes into the party, heavily armed Lebanese police broke in and started beating them with batons calling them names such as "animals" and "niggers".

A man by the name of Alaa Al-Abdullah told Al-Nashra newspaper that despite being present legally in Lebanon he and the others were forced to lay on their stomach in the street after blocking car entry into the area. He added that police forces placed their boots on their heads and necks.

Another man by the name of Abbas said that when they were asked by the police how they speak Arabic so fluently, they responded by saying that they are Arabs from Sudan. According to him, the officers thought they were "making fun of them" and started another round of beating.

Others said that Lebanese people living in the area intervened and tried to protect the Sudanese forcing the police to call for reinforcements.

The Sudanese citizens were taken to the police station and those with legal residency were released afterwards.

But the head of the Lebanese general security director-general Wafiq Jazini denied abuse of force by the police saying that the Sudanese attempted to escape and described accounts saying otherwise as "lies". Jazini stressed that only those who were in the country illegally have been detained.

The Sudanese discussion boards started a campaign calling for boycotting Lebanese businesses in the country which range from lavish restaurants to cell phone companies across Sudan. A petition is being generated demanding an investigation and an apology.

There are around 750 Lebanese citizens living in Sudan, according to figures from the Lebanese embassy in Khartoum.

Many people in Sudan accuse Lebanese of viewing them as underdogs and being racist against them because of their color.

Sudan official news agency (SUNA) quoted the Lebanese ambassador Ahmed Ibrahim Shamat as condemning the events that took place and beating of Sudanese citizens.

Shamat who was speaking at a press conference at the embassy said that an investigation is underway to determine responsibility and that those implicated will be punished.

The diplomat said he conveyed apologies of the Lebanese foreign minister over what happened and said that it should not have any impact on bilateral relations. He criticized calls for boycotting Lebanese products and businesses saying that they are blowing things out of proportion.

In response to questions about racial remarks allegedly made by Lebanese security, Shamat said that priests wear black color as a sign of respect and that the Kaaba in Mecca is covered in black silk.

The Sudanese foreign ministry spokesperson Muawiya Khalid told reporters that the embassy in Beirut will seek to resolve statuses of those present illegally and reinstating the rights of those who were victims to police brutality if proven.

Khalid called on Sudanese living abroad to adjust their statuses and ensure they have papers entitling them to live there.

(ST)

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Kind regards,

The Sudan Tribune editorial team.

21 June 2010 10:18, by silake comba

It is a well known fact that the Sudanese are treated like this in many of the so-called arab countries. The Lebanese in particular are there alover African Countries, including the sudan, they are making lots of business and flirshing through plundering the African wealth and stealing and snatching the morsel from the mouthes of the poverty-stricken African childern. These people and other so called arabs are there in Sudan stealing and exploiting. They are fully respected by the good sudanese people but in return they are treating the sudanese arrogantly and with superiority. It is the crime of those who annexed our nation to the so called world which price we are paying today. I call upon all sudanese wandering in the streets of such mini countries-extremely poorin terms of civilization, history and humanitarianism like Lebanon to leave immediately and come back home. I call upon my fellow citizens in such countries, whether they are refugees or others to come back to their home and change the situation that made them escape their beloved country, in whatever means.

It is a well known fact that the Sudanese are treated like this in many of the so-called arab countries. The Lebanese in particular are there alover African Countries, including the sudan, they are making lots of business and flirshing through plundering the African wealth and stealing and snatching the morsel from the mouthes of the poverty-stricken African childern. These people and other so called arabs are there in Sudan stealing and exploiting. They are fully respected by the good sudanese people but in return they are treating the sudanese arrogantly and with superiority. It is the crime of those who annexed our nation to the so called world which price we are paying today. I call upon all sudanese wandering in the streets of such mini countries-extremely poorin terms of civilization, history and humanitarianism like Lebanon to leave immediately and come back home. I call upon my fellow citizens in such countries, whether they are refugees or others to come back to their home and change the situation that made them escape their beloved country, in whatever means.

It is a well known fact that the Sudanese are treated like this in many of the so-called arab countries. The Lebanese in particular are there alover African Countries, including the sudan, they are making lots of business and flirshing through plundering the African wealth and stealing and snatching the morsel from the mouthes of the poverty-stricken African childern. These people and other so called arabs are there in Sudan stealing and exploiting. They are fully respected by the good sudanese people but in return they are treating the sudanese arrogantly and with superiority. It is the crime of those who annexed our nation to the so called world which price we are paying today. I call upon all sudanese wandering in the streets of such mini countries-extremely poorin terms of civilization, history and humanitarianism like Lebanon to leave immediately and come back home. I call upon my fellow citizens in such countries, whether they are refugees or others to come back to their home and change the situation that made them escape their beloved country, in whatever means.

Hay this is what the unity can’t take place because we the Southern are not the Arab but an African. What type of the two Groups can unit to? What name will be given if it results to unity, I guest “Afro-Arab” No rooms for us in the entire Arab Countries.

Therefore we are the African whatever the case may be an African south Sudan typically free from all sorts of evil practice of terrorists and imitations of other racial.

To my own option we have to vote for new state and new African from South Sudan rather then people with no where to go.

If there is going to be united Sudan then new constitution should be done, abolishment of the sharria Low from the constituency and putting religion aside from the Governmental Affairs and not forgetting our own dignity an African people; then will equal to Unity of the Sudanese People, where all its Citizens will enjoys the fruits of her country’s democratically and No more Northern, Southern, Westerns and Eastern but the Sudanese People.

Therefore if we desire to blossom like a flower in the garden of the new Sudan, then we must learn the art of adjusting our life with the Thorns

Good test for them in in Arab world.
they were thinking that they were Arab.
Now test probe they not and guilty in the nearest
future accept their African mixed blood. They fool learn after a lot of mistake. They were killing African people have that they were Arab. Doom African Arab. Might be sudanese should kick Labonese who are taking over busines in Juba.

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